THIS WEEK FROM WASHINGTON
& Beyond for Wednesday, July 1st

UPDATE

The Senate left for its Independence Day recess, without any progress on
a 1999 transportation funding bill. The Transportation Appropriation
Subcommittee’s mark-up session, which was continually scheduled and
postponed throughout June, now is expected Tuesday, July 7.

It is still believed that Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama is planning
to zero out or drastically cut Amtrak funding, once again forcing a
discussion about whether Amtrak should be kept alive.

Meanwhile, the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, chaired
by Frank Wolf of Virginia, may move ahead with a bill of its own the
week of July 14.

Recess is a good time to remind both your Senators and Representative
that Amtrak needs to be fully funded in the transportation funding bills
that will start moving in July. Particularly in the Senate, make clear
to your senator the importance of he or she conveying to his or her
leader (i.e., Lott for Republicans, Daschle for Democrats) that full
funding of Amtrak's appropriations request is vital.

1) The meeting of the Senate Transportation Appropriation subcommittee to
approve (or mark-up) a 1999 Transportation Funding Bill is now expected on
Tuesday June 9th. Recent comments on Amtrak funding by it's chairman - Richard
Shelby (R-AL) indicate there is great danger that he will give nothing at all
to Amtrak for 1999. It is important that:

C) The bill should clarify Amtrak's right to spend appropriate
capital on maintenance as is already the case for transit.
Amtrak and the Administration including the OMB are in full support on
agreement to the above requests.

2) The Surface Transportation Board on May 29th released its decisions both
on the Amtrak Boston to Portland,ME service and the "Express" initiative.
Praise was given to the board's "Express" decision thus upholding the historic
role of passenger trains carrying express shipments. Guilford issued an upbeat
statement on the Portland decision which suggests that they plan no appeal.

3) Germany suffered it's worst rail accident in 50 years on Wednesday June
3rd with 96 confirmed (as of Friday) dead and hundreds injured when an ICE
(InterCity Express) train derailed. The accident did not take place on one of
the new high-speed lines, but rather on a conventional rail line 35 miles
north of Hannover. The ICE, which travels at 175 mph on high-speed lines, was
traveling at 125 mph on its way from Munich to Hamburg. The latest news has a
report that a piece of a wheel was found nearly 4 miles back from the accident
scene.The train rolled along until it reached a set of crossover switches
under a highway bridge. The front part of the train went through and
separated from the rest of the train, but the rear and several cars derailed
and jackknifed, slamming into a bridge abutment, thus bringing down the
highway bridge on top of the train. German Railways imposed a temporary 100mph
speed limit on its trains that was lifted at noon on June 5th. They withdrew
60 first generation ICE trainsets for inspection, but 30 are now back in
normal service. This is the first time passengers were killed - ever- on any
high-speed trains since the Japanese Bullet Trains began operation in 1964.
There have also been no Metroliner fatalities in 30 years of operation.

Also, standard American trains are designed to a much higher strength than
European trains. For example, cars in the US can take 800,000 lbs. of
pressure from the ends - referred to as buff-strength, but European trains
only take 460,000 lbs.. The American Flyer Trains being built for the
Northeast Corridor are designed to take 800,000 lbs. at the vestibules (buff-
strength), but also have an inner shell that can take 1.2 million lbs. and can
hold the weight of another car on top. They will also have airline-style
enclosed luggage racks.

4) Information regarding the ISTEA legislation - now called the
Transportation Efficiency Act for the 21st Century - or T-21 has been leaking
out to the press. The best news out of the legislation is the improved tax
treatment of employer-provided transit payments. Under the new plan,
employers will be able to remove a $65 a month from the worker's existing
pretax salary and give it to them as transit passes that are not subject to
federal, state or local tax including payroll tax. The plan calls for
increasing the benefit to $100 per month starting in 2002.

Another provision of the bill is that conferees agreed to repeal 1.25 cents of
the fuel tax paid by railroads and Amtrak effective November 1st.

5) On Thursday night June 4th, the American Passenger Rail Coalition
presented an award to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS). In accepting
he said that the Senate in 1997 had a choice to make about whether we need a
nationwide rail passenger system. His positive answer to the question was
based on conversations with Meridian,MS mayor John Robert Smith, a lot of
experts and "just ordinary people", he said. He also mentioned talking with
Florida Senator Connie Mack (R) just after Mack enjoyed a recent trip on the
Auto Train.

6) As of June 1st, Thruway Bus Service is available connecting the TEXAS
EAGLE in both directions to Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas.

7) Recent Amtrak station rededications included Tampa Union Station on May
30th, and Kingston (Rhode Island ) Station on May 31st.